Tag Archive: Michael Westmore

Let’s just leave Voyager aside for right now. Plenty of time for that in the S6 and S7 post. Which I guarantee you will come across as more of a belligerent rant than anything. I’ll be focusing instead on something I have nice things to say about; the final season of the very wonderful Deep Space 9. (DS9)

DS9 is phenomenal when all is said and done. It’s a predecessor to all of the excellent television which we’ve been blessed with over the last decade. (Lost, Breaking Bad, etc…) It’s true! Not just because of the dark undertones which television has leaned towards lately, but in turns of style, character development, and attention to story. DS9 was ahead of it’s time, and should really be as appreciated as The Original Series (TOS) was after its production run had ended. Continue reading →

What’s interesting in watching through all of Star Trek is you actually get to see how women are thought of in society change before your eyes. I had read that during The Original Series (TOS) Nichelle Nichols had thought of leaving the show, citing she felt she had too small of role. She was convinced to stay aboard, as Lt. Uhura was more important to the civil rights and women’s rights movement than she was a character on the show. Being that she is after all a Lieutenant, and to have a woman of color in a leadership role on television was unheard of in the sixties. Truth be told as communications officer, she was little more than Kirk’s secretary. Yet still, this was seen as a great moment for women. If any woman, even a woman of color were to be given the role of Uhura today it wouldn’t be thought of as anything, let alone revolutionary. Sure, if it weren’t Uhura it would have been someone else, but in the end it was Uhura. The rest of the TOS universe shows just how women were portrayed on television; as objects of desire. Lately, as I watch through what is quickly becoming my favorite in the Star Trek series, Voyager (VOY), I find myself marveling at how much society can change its view of 51% of the population in just a few decades. Continue reading →

Cool from this angle, but from underneath it looks like a toilet seat.

Going into Star Trek Voyager (VOY) I was a bit nervous. The final few seasons of The Next Generation (TNG) along with Deep Space 9 (DS9) so far have been so wrapped up in the Cardassian threat. I wasn’t sure what to expect with VOY. More of the same? Some sort of low-cost replacement for my friends aboard NCC 1701-D? Well the pilot begins with words scrolling on the screen explaining Maquis and Cardassians private little war which has been raging throughout the previous couple of seasons of both TNG and DS9, in the demilitarized zone. Uh oh, here we go. Then we’re introduced to the crew of a Maquis ship. Oh boy… seven additional seasons of this? To make things even rougher on me I’m introduced to a human Captain, human helmsman, ops, doctor, human, human, human. Did Michael Westmore just pack up the make up department and leave or what’s happening here? Then it happens… the twist. Lets just say that by the end of the pilot I had to check to make sure my room mates weren’t home so I could cheer as loudly as I liked over how pumped I was for VOY. Turns out one of my room mates was in his room with the door shut, very embarrassing for me.